After poll debacle, Congress MPs choose Sonia Gandhi as their leader

Sonia Gandhi has been elected as the leader of Congress Parliamentary Party during the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) meeting. The Congress won just 52 of 542 parliamentary seats this time, its second worst performance since 2014 election.

This was also the first official meeting that Congress president Rahul Gandhi will attend after the meeting of the party’s working committee held on May 25, where he offered to quit as Congress chief.

The CWC has already rejected his offer to resign and unanimously passed a resolution authorising him to bring structural changes in the party at all levels in a bid to revamp it.

According to the reports, Rahul could be asked to either head the CPP or lead the party in the Lok Sabha. With 52 MPs in Lok Sabha, the Congress doesn’t qualify to get the official Leader of the Opposition.

But the party would need to choose a new leader in the Lok Sabha as its previous leader, Mallikarjun Kharge, lost the election in his constituency. The party is three members short of the total that would qualify it for the post of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.